ABSTRACT
Our largest multidisciplinary problems outpace disciplinary training designed to reinforce boundaries. Using an interdisciplinary conversation about adolescent brain imaging, I argue that disciplinary stances (interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary) operate like rhetorical stases, helping diagnose where conversations build or diverge among experts. Because what constitutes interdisciplinarity is contested, mapping rhetorical features of each disciplinary stance stabilizes definitional debates by grounding interactions in specific discursive practices and offers technical communicators ways to facilitate and participate in stronger crossdisciplinary communication.
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Kathryn Lambrecht
Kathryn Lambrecht is an Assistant Professor of Technical Communication at Arizona State University. Her research draws on rhetoric of science, risk communication, corpus linguistics, interdisciplinary communication, and data visualization to strengthen communication between experts and public audiences, particularly in STEM fields. Her interdisciplinary focus has led her to work with the National Weather Service, public health, engineering communication, identity studies, and Writing in the Disciplines. Her research has been published in the Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Geoscience Communication, the Bulletin of American Meteorological Society, and the Journal of General Education.